'If a stone has moss on it, it's rotten and has to be thrown away'

Children's movies, what a wonderful way to make yourself relax. Header is from movie Kuningas, jolla ei ollut sydäntä (King without a heart), fairy tale written by Mika Waltari - who's better known as author of The Egyptian (Sinuhe egyptiläinen).

I used to love this story when I was a kid, even it was a tad scary. Back then.
When I've grew up I've found it as a story and as a movie (purchased DVD from some sale in ridiculously low price).

Even I know it's Finnish movie, filmed in Finland, it amazes me. There are certain amazing sceneries which are actually quite typical for Finland, but still they have this 'exotic' feel. Quite good effect, noticing I'm almost 27 and lived in here my whole life.
If I had suitable cable to connect my laptop to my desktop computer I'd take you few screen shots... but I don't have. Yet.

Being sick

Yes, I am. Whole set: sore throat and muscles, icky stuff in my sinuses (not much), tiredness, hot skin, slight depression. In addition to that my back hurts because my body knows how to schedule things...

Fortunately I've Wolfie (honestly: he's amazing) who worries about my well-being and sends me sweet SMS' to keep my spirits up.

So

Is it spring or is it just having head and heart in other time zone with the rest of me? I can't sleep.
To be more accurate, I can, but only few hours at once. And that is not enough for me. (Even I nap I don't get enough sleep, and my brains appreciate decent night sleep more than shorter night sleep and napping.)

Actually I feel like getting a flu or something. My skin is rather hot and my throat feels silly.
But then it's better to be sick now....

600; Booking Trough Thursday in Friday

After having pleasant nap (have you ever tried to be in different time zone with your head? It causes shortened night sleep) I'd want to announce 600th entry in my blog. (And there was much rejoicing.)

And then:

Booking Trough Thursday

Reach out a hand, and grab the book that is closest to you. Turn to page 231, or pick a page at random if the book isn't that long. Locate the first sentence of the last paragraph on that page.

1. Type the sentence
2. Does the sentence make sense out of context?
3. Does reading the sentence make you want to read the rest of the book? Why or why not?

1. "Some procedures and rates differ when the victim is a child."
2. It does, in certain extent.
3. Hmmm.... I could read it just because I'm curious and want to know everything about all.

Book in question was Webster's Pocket Medical & First Aid Dictionary of the English Language. I have, as I may have previously mentioned, Webster's Pocket Reference Library on my computer desk. Today WPMFAotEL was on the top of the box so it was first book in my hand.

Stitch-A-Thon; The Beginning

It's third weekend of this month and time for monthly Stitch-A-Thon at Friends Gather BB.
I decided to combine this month's BYSH and SAT by stitching Saliant. This is what it looked like when I started:

My goal is to finish dragon during the weekend (though I need to decide is weekend from Friday to Sunday or from Friday to Monday ), and if I manage to finish borders I'm very pleased with myself.

598

I think I'm having stage fever.
We actually have some sort of time frame now (loose though) and I'm worrying about every single thing which can go wrong in a way or another before it and when I'm in SEA. (I'll reveal my actual destination later (as in fact it may not be SEA at all depending on a thing or dozen)), for you curious people out there *grin*)

Maybe I'm afraid of dreaming and waking up any day now... I wouldn't blame me on that though. Past seems to haunt me sometimes (in fact we both have our fair share of haunting past). And happiness is scary in it's way.
But I know myself. I'm a worrywart. I worry excessively when I've high stakes. Like now. Love is highest stake I can imagine.

I think I'm not in que sera phase anymore, now I just want to keep him in my life for good. Even just a thought of losing him is unbearable.

How can someone get this fast in so deep?

597; S.E.X. - Therapy anyone?

Well, bits_2_whole finally found mail from ABC Stitching Therapy, with gift certificate code, from my mother's email account and I got my S.E.X. (Nothing beats free sex S.E.X.)! And as you all die to know what I got with that GC I wont torture you any longer:

1. Silkweaver Expressions Desert Sky Lugana 28ct; 13x18 (For the Panda)
2. Thread Cutter Pendant
3. Ezmeralda's House (Bright Needle)
4. Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue 2005
5. Sampler and Antique Needlework Vol 42
6. Anchor Gold Plated Needlepoint Needles

Well, as I found all flosses from my stash I reimbursed them and got stash for me. And ABC has only limited size GCs (which is bit silly) I got a bit over-sized one. And, this parcel should be insured (worth paying $1.5) so no worries about losing it.

Anyway, Ezmeralda's House is not generally my style, but I like it for some reason (Can you say horror?). Thread cutter will be useful in future , JCS issue is first one ever for me and Sampler and Antique Needlework I bought just out of curiosity. No need to explain those needles, I think.

596

It has to be illegal to be this happy... or at least bad for my health or something.

Ok, I could get used to this feeling without any protests.

Dragon of Hope; conversion

DMC

• 333 -> 814
• 340 -> 498
• 341 -> 347
• 3347 -> 816
• 3746 -> 815

Poles with PB10, nails with PB01. Backstitches with 310.

Dragon of Hope; aka. Greetings from Republic of Insomnia

Insomnia, friend of us who'd like to be close to someone dear who's far away.... *sighs*

Well, at least I did something productive and finished backstitching of my dragon. May I introduce: Dragon of Hope with Pacific Ocean view.

Info:

• Designer JL Aikman-Smith from Dragon Dreams Inc.
• Freebie
• On 32 count hand-dyed Silkweaver opaslescent Inspiration
• Two over two
• Colour conversion by me

If I had done this month ago it'd have been Atlantic view... but then I "met" certain someone, *coughs* (Yes, Wolfie), and well, as he resides in Pacific area do I actually need to say more?

And some symbolism:

Red

...Protective powers of the color red against evil influence were common belief.
Objects, animals and trees were covered in red paint, warriors painted their axes and spear-catapults red to endow the weapons with magic powers. Some of the Australian aborigines abide by this custom up to the present times. Neolithic hunters and Germanic warriors used to paint their weapons and even themselves in blood of slain animals.Roman gladiators drank blood of their dying adversaries to take over their strength.
In other cultures, the newly born were bathed in blood of particularly strong and good looking animals.
Red painted amulets or red gems, such as ruby or garnet, were used as charms against the"evil eye". Wearing a red ruby was supposed to bring about invincibility. Red bed-clothes were customary in Germany up to the Middle Ages as protection against the "red illnesses", such as fever,rashes or even miscarriages (famous example is the painting Arnolfini Wedding by Jan Van Eyck, dated 1434).

Btw,

my Silkweaver order is shipped and my little card had to pay ~$4 more because of the shipping fees. Blah. But then... stash! Come to momma!

What next?

Biscornu for an exchange, so no pictures before it's received. This is my first biscornu ever so thumbs up everyone!

SBQ; Stitching in motion

Today's

Stitching Bloggers Question

was suggested by Carol and is:

"For those of you that stitch while riding in the car or on the train, how do you cope with the bumps and the motion? Do you have any tips for others?"

And I've to pass this one. As I don't have any experience of train/ car stitching (ferries are quite stable places to stitch anyway...) , at least not yet.

Which means... off to bed (though it may take time to doze off as my back begun to hurt... which may be good sign though, so not complaining..). I think there'll be happy dance tomorrow so stay tuned!

Huge red blob

May I introduce you: Dragon of Hope without backstitches.

... to be continued.

Braiinss....

My dear brains have been acting up again today, so I could say that I'm impressed because of progress I made after my second awakening. (After first one I ate breakfast and realized that I should get back to bed because I was so dizzy. Slept almost 4 hours, I think.)
If there were any pain it'd have been easier, but when only thing you can do is lay down because your head has it's own merry-go-round... I'm not used to be dizzy.
I assume that this is just one new form of migraine as I have some sort of band around my head, and I definitely have problems with blood circulation even now when writing this... I don't know. For some reason it feels that these ones come from low blood pressure. Just a new phenomenon in my migraine types.
But I've to admit that idea of having too low blood pressure is almost hilarious for someone who had high pressure in her teens... though fact is that my blood pressure has gotten lower during years. (Silly, isn't it?)

Eu te amo

There weren't paddles when it happened (some time ago, in fact).

Someone could say something, as we haven't actually knew each others that long (some of you may know that feeling when it feels that you actually have known someone for years...). But it just happened. Why prevent such a great thing? (And how could you possibly prevent love?) Or why hide such a beautiful emotion?

I'm still a bit confused as this really was something I couldn't see coming. But I love every second. And I love that amazing mind, wonderful soul and beautiful heart he has - not to forget that absolutely amazing twisted sense of humour (and few other things *blush*).
He has ability to make me speechless (which is quite an achievement), and here we seem to go again. I can't find words to describe what I want to say. Sometimes words just fail, because of this limited human lingo.

It's great to love and to be loved. ^^

And: condition of my skin has improved drastically in few days. It's dry still, but it's smoother and fair. I think my theory about that is obvious.

Monday Madness; Shopping

This week's

Monday Madness

Do you like to shop?

IF YES, answer the following:


1. What is your favorite store? Why?
2. Do you only shop when there is something you specifically need or want or do you sometimes go shopping just for "something to do?"
3. Do you prefer shopping online or in stores?
4. Do you have a shopping buddy or are you perfectly content going alone?

IF NO, answer the following:


1. Even though you don't like to shop, where do you find yourself shopping most often?
2. Do you try to send someone else to shop for you? If so, who and why that person?
3. Do you think shopping online is as annoying as shopping in stores?
4. Does anyone close to you encourage to go shopping with her (or him)? If so, do you feel tortured and go or just say no?

Yes and no. Case sensitive, but apparently I have to generalize... No (we're not talking of stash shopping now as that is what I love most.... well, at least when it comes to shopping ).

1. Where as store or offline/ online? Online anyway, there's no specific place, not now as Silkweaver betrayed me.
2. No. I usually prefer to shop alone.
3. Online shopping is almost tolerable as I can do it in peace of my own home, with coffee mug in one hand and mouse in other hand. And if you're as shallow as I am you may enjoy not having a need to look good.
4. No, not at this moment at least.

Nerdy stitching

As some of you know I don't own a printer and therefore I stitch my freebies from screen.

I was opening my laptop (HP from now on) in the morning, and for some reason I found that situation hilarious as I use one computer to follow design and other one runs movie I'm watching while stitching. (I think that getting HP will mean that I'll watch much more movies in future. As I don't have actual DVD player, but HP has CD-R - DVD drive in it... )

Anyway, I wont be able to fulfill my 24 hour challenge goal (I've only about an hour left). I slept quite long today, and I have had frantic (amazing, to be honest) SMS exchanging whole day so I think I'm excused.

Btw,

-3 kilos! \o/ (In about three weeks without doing anything for it!)

Meme; A Day In History

While waiting some files to be transferred from my laptop to bits_2_whole's I was checking blog updates and found this from chanda_m's blog:

"Go to Wikipedia and look up your birth day (excluding the year). List three neat facts, two births and one death in your journal, including the year."

And here they come!

3rd of July

Facts
1. 1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands).
2. 2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system.
3. 2005 - The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain.

Births
1. 1442 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500)
2. 1883 - Franz Kafka, Czech writer (d. 1924)

Death
1. 1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943)

Allow me to broaden this a bit... What happened when I born?

Fact
1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul.

Birth
1979 - snowprincipessa

Death
1979 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888)

OMGz0r! It's 2nd weekend of April!

Which actually came as a surprise even to Nancy, organizer of 24 hour challenge (at Friends Gather). So, I'm not only one who seems to be bit lost with time sometimes. Good to know.

Well, as I have previously mentioned I'll do Dragon of Hope, freebie from Dragon Dreams.
Though I'll change colour of dragon from violet (not bad colour, but I've my reason to change it) to deep red. Why? Because it carries Earth on it's lap and I just think that shades of blue and violet may be bit too close to each others - just blame my degree. People with designing related education may have odd opinions about colours.
In other words, I want to make Earth visible. And for some reason I just see that dragon red.

In fact I have something stitching related I'd want to blog about, but at this moment my head is suffering from excessive sleeping or lack of caffeine. My frontal lobe is levitating somewhere over my head, so I'll leave that to later.

From Bleh to Goodie etc.

For some reason Silkweaver's shopping system has heard about my promise to ditch them for time being... as I can't place and order. It just never seems to get into Thank for your order page - and I'd so want some natural linen stitch bands from them...

*few seconds pass*

Power of complaining! Hallelujah, thank you G-d! Baruch Hashem! (And other suitable sentences...)
It went trough after I ranted a bit.
So, lovelies flying over Atlantic soon (though I could use one lovely, which you can't get from SW)!

Yes, broke my promise to myself about not ordering anything from SW, but as it's not only decision I have 'broke' (I'd prefer to use term decided to change because of a good reason) lately no one notices. And I couldn't resist those stitch bands... and red Belfast linen (and red Jubilee).
I can stop this any day... shopping.

From computers to biology

Laptop is finally at home! Dan has left the building, unlike it was supposed to be, he decided to be with his better half (they're quite cute couple, btw). But I'm not actually complaining. My menses are coming and I am so sore... I can't concentrate on being my nice self. I just seem to want to be complaining bit... erm, person few days (and I dislike pain you can't kill with painkillers... ouch)
In fact it seems to me that my inattentivity increases in this phase of my cycle, not to mention those other autistic traits (ADD and AS are both syndromes from autistic scale) I carry around. And lately it has meant that I'm even more autistic than I'm usually, or at least more often, just because my cycle is normalized.

NFH

Yes, it's arrived to U.S.A.. My Spring Needleroll, and it was loved (*evil laughter*) so therefore I guide you to this post.

And now, it's bed time for old cranky androgynes.

Enrolling

Wonders of IRC channels: I got the info I needed without calling to EVTEK. So, actually that application form has little unclarity in it in it's last page. Know-how(tm).

Anyway, idea is eventually have B.Eng papers in my pocket, either in Industrial Management or IT (Do I hear deep sigh?).
Which means... I need to improve my math and physics skills for the entering exams.
Or not improve, but train myself and remember what I have forgot. Though it's possible that I have to actually learn few things, but then... /me likes.

And you guys want to laugh? With some luck, and few twists in Universe, bits_2_whole will be in same study group with me (because of same surname) - if I get in (she will get in anyway, I've no doubt of it) to my first option, and if she takes that place.
That could be interesting.

Oh my, I'd like to be G-d sometimes and remove our ability to have insecurities. We just hurt people who mean most with that stuff...
But who said that life is easy? *bangs her head to the wall for while*

Btw, for reason or another there's no warm water... It was nice surprise when I was going to shower myself.
Fortunately I have family-size "water cooker". Modern day kitchen utilies can be handy sometimes.

And to make it even... ah, well, normal, I've tried to call to student office of EVTEK about certain thing my application and they just don't answer. Great.
It just happens to be last possible day to enroll so I'd really like to get the answer... though I have sent my application, there's just this thing about my degree I'm applying with.

Why not take a holiday in South East Asia this year?

Yes, why not?

• Get all those lovely vaccinations
• Be prepared to fly 'til you drop
• Stock up allergy medications and pain killers
• Provide about a ton info to worrying family members
• And dozen other things...

But what the heck, I think I'll blog Greetings from SEA some day. He seems to be willing to pay my ticket (knowing my financial status anyway) just to meet me... (And anyway I actually have time on my hands, unlike he.)
So... Yours truly may be travelling in near future (which also means no name changes in near future as I need approriate passport...).
And... I need to get thread cutter because I've to be prepared not to travel with scissors... (Well, it's either dying to boredom or stitching on a plane.)

And in other news, new reader! Yippee!
I'm very easily pleased today/ nowadays. Today especially after sleepless night and frantic SMS change with, well, you know.